He's a pleasant surprise, isn't he? One thing I didn't care for in David Tennant's Doctor was that he was so obviously trying to appear, well, eccentric. You could see him acting. Not so with this new guy. He's got so much energy he can barely contain himself. And I liked the Amelia Pond story. It always tickled me how easily the Doctor's companions gave up everything they were familiar with to go gallivanting around the universe. But this girl has been waiting for the Doctor over half her life. She has no parents, and the aunt she lived with as a child has apparently passed on. She has only a sort-of boyfriend, and she works in a job that would seem to offer little opportunity for advancement (!). This companion was well prepared for. Good.

I hate to be a spoilsport, but I'm not so sure about this new guy. All that part at the beginning, about fish sticks and custard and so on, that was just shtick. I'd finally got used to David Tennant, and now I have to start all over again.

Sure, the fish fingers and custard were shtick, while he was still "cooking" as he put it. But now that he's well done, and the Tardis is working again, and he has a new sonic screwdriver as well as a new companion, things should be shtickless from now on. (In moderation, of course.)

That picture's over a year old, maybe closer to two. RDA underwent a series of surgeries on his shoulder, knee, and foot. The foot surgery didn't heal quickly and he spent three months in bed and gained 35 pounds. This is an active guy who was still playing ice hockey in his 50s. But with that much pain, Cortisone is a possibility. Did the SGU episode show his full body or was it just head and shoulders?

A fourth series of Torchwood is coming...NEXT SUMMER! Yep, 2011, and it won't be showing on BBCAmerica. STARZ bought the American rights. Only two of the original cast members are returning, John Barrowman and Eve Myles. I think they killed off all the rest of the cast, the other members of the team, I mean. Which I don't think was a bad move at all.